Historically fat blends suitable for the manufacture of margarine/spreads, fat products and the like were designed to satisfy customer requirements such as significant cooling impact, a rapid sharp melt sensation, and not having a coated or waxy feel on the tongue. In addition, it should impart temperature cycling stability (heat stability) as well as spread ability when taken out frequently from the refrigerator as a prominent feature.
To achieve these objectives, fat blends suitable for the manufacture of margarine and spreads and the like are being formulated using hard stocks derived by hydrogenation of liquid oils. However, with the adverse effect of trans fatty acids being published, consumers are looking for margarine/spreads with practically no trans fatty acids.
Suitable trans free margarine/spreads production can be achieved by using fully hydrogenated fats as structural fat, which usually does not contain trans fatty acid or a very negligible amount. However, hydrogenation processes are generally viewed as the main reason for the development of trans fatty acids in oils and fats. Hence, there is a strong consumer perception against usage of any hydrogenated oil/fat in food products including margarine/spreads.
The present invention serves to develop fat blends suitable for the manufacture of margarine/spreads, fat products and the like using no hydrogenated fats/oils in the blend at the same time serving to reduce the saturated fatty acid levels (hereinafter referred to as SAFA) as well as trans fat levels in the products.
The following abbreviations are used in the present specification: FA=fatty acid, PUFA=poly-unsaturated acid(s), SAFA=saturated fatty acid(s), MFA=Mono unsaturated Fatty Acids, H=saturated FAs with carbon numbers greater than or equal to 16, M=saturated FAs with carbon numbers less than or equal to or less than 14. H-3 refers to triglycerides with 3-carbon chain of length C16 and above that are saturated. H2M refers to triglycerides which has 2 carbon chain that are C16 and above and saturated and one chain of carbon length C14 and below. Tg's=tri glycerides.
In this description all parts, proportions and percentages are by weight; the amount of fatty acids in an oil or fat is based on the total amount of fatty acids in the oil or fat and the amount of hard stock and/or hard fat in the fat composition is based on the total weight of the fat composition, unless otherwise stated.
For a better understanding of the invention, some practical embodiments thereof have been described in the following examples. Parts and percentages as used in these examples, the description and the claims refer to weights unless otherwise indicated. For general information on the manufacturing of spreads, reference may be made to various text books, e.g. The Chemistry and Technology of Edible Oils and Fats and their High Fat Products by G. Hoffmann; Academic Press London 1989, page 319 ff and in particular page 320-321. Further, carbon number analysis as described herein is a well-known technique in the art. A suitable description is example given in EP 78,568.
“Fractionation” is a process used for the separation of high melting components from a feed stock, The higher melting solid fraction obtained is called a “stearin” fraction and the lower melting liquid fraction is called an “olein” fraction. Throughout this illustration, the term stearin fraction as well as term olein fraction means higher melting fraction and lower melting fraction respectively.
Interesterification process is a well-known art and a more recent review of the same is published by Rozendaal & Macrae (1997). When an interesterification process is carried out using alkali metal catalyst (0.1-0.2% sodium methoxide catalyst ((sodium methylate (NaOCH3)-UN No. 143 also known as Natrium Methylate is used as catalyst), it leads to a random distribution of triglycerides in which the fatty acids are distributed randomly over the 1-2- and 3-position of the glycerol moiety. The number of tri-glycerides produced by interesterifying a fatty mixture containing n fatty acids is: ½(n2+n3).